Seven of the U.S. troops killed in the Mississippi plane crash on Monday were special operations forces based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Six were Marines and one was a sailor.

A Marine Corps refueling plane crashed and burned in a soybean field in the Mississippi Delta, killing all 16 military members aboard in a wreck that scattered debris for miles and sent a pillar of black smoke rising over the countryside.

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It was the deadliest Marine crash — in the U.S. or abroad — since 2005.The Marines said Tuesday that the air tanker was based at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, New York, and headed to California.

One of the plane's stops was in North Carolina, presumably to pick up the seven commandos.

The plane was scheduled to drop them and their equipment off for training at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona, and fly on to a naval air field at El Centro, California. The seven commandos were from the Camp Lejeune-based 2nd Marine Raider Battalion.

Officials have not released the names of those killed. The crash is under investigation.The FBI joined the investigation, but Marine Maj. Andrew Aranda told reporters no foul play was suspected.

Andy Jones said he was working on his family’s catfish farm just before 4 p.m. when he heard a boom and looked up to see the plane spiraling downward with one engine smoking.

“You looked up and you saw the plane twirling around,” he said. “It was spinning down.”Jones said that by the time he and others reached the crash site, fires were burning too intensely to approach the wreckage. The force of the crash nearly flattened the plane, Jones said.

“Beans are about waist-high, and there wasn’t much sticking out above the beans,” he said.

Jones said a man borrowed his cellphone to report to authorities that there were bodies across a highway, more than a mile from the crash site.

Greenwood Fire Chief Marcus Banks told the Greenwood Commonwealth that debris was scattered in a radius of about 5 miles.

Jones said firefighters tried to put out the fire but withdrew after an explosion forced them back. The fierce blaze produced black smoke visible for miles across the flat region and continued to burn after dusk, more than four hours later.

In 2005, a Marine transport helicopter crashed during a sandstorm in Iraq, killing 30 Marines and a sailor.